Channel 4 face inquiry over Dispatches

By John Steele,Crime Correspondent

12:01AM BST 09 Aug 2007

Channel 4 has been investigated for a possible criminal offence of stirring up racial hatred, police and the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday, as they accused the broadcaster of "completely distorting" material in a documentary on extremism in mosques.

West Midlands Police, which admitted that the programme was "offensive", have also complained to Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, over the Dispatches documentary, which they claim "spliced together" extracts from speeches to distort what Muslim preachers were saying.

The complaint about Undercover Mosque, which was shown in January, has been rejected by Channel 4 and is the latest controversy over the editing of television documentaries.

It was lodged after the CPS concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge against Channel 4 of broadcasting material which might stir up racial hatred. The CPS also found that there was not enough evidence to support charges against those featured. Ofcom was already examining the programme after viewers complained.

Undercover Mosque featured Sparkbrook Islamic Centre and Green Lane mosque in Birmingham. The programme was made by the Hardcash production company, which said on its website that it had "investigated a number of mosques run by high-profile national organisations that claim to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with other faiths. But an undercover reporter joined worshippers to find a message of religious bigotry and extremism being preached."

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It has also emerged that Scotland Yard is examining a second Dispatches programme on extremism in London, shown on Monday night.

The row comes after the BBC was forced to apologise to the Queen over a trailer for a documentary and ITV became embroiled in a controversy over an advertisement for a documentary about an Alzheimer's patient.

The CPS reviewing lawyer, Bethan David, considered 56 hours of footage which was reduced to the hour-long programme. She said: "The splicing together of extracts from longer speeches appears to have completely distorted what the speakers were saying.

However, Miss David advised that there was "insufficient evidence that racial hatred had been stirred up as a direct consequence of the programme. It would also be necessary to identify a key individual responsible for doing, this together with an intent to stir up racial hatred, which was not possible." Kevin Sutcliffe, commissioning editor for Dispatches, said: "We are very confident of successfully defending this unfairness complaint if Ofcom chooses to consider it.

"We believe the comments made in the film speak for themselves - several speakers were clearly shown making abhorrent and extreme comments. All the speakers featured in the film were offered a right to reply and none denied making these comments, nor have any of them complained to Ofcom to our knowledge."

Shouaib Ahmed, the general secretary of the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, said: "The way the programme was presented was wrong and gave an unfair impression of the mosque, especially to our non-Muslim friends."

What was said

The programme was introduced by the narrator describing "an ideology of bigotry and intolerance spreading through Britain, with its roots in Saudi Arabia".

One Saudi-educated speaker, Dr Ijan Mian, was recorded praising the Saudi religious police and calling on Muslims to "dismantle" the British state.

He was recorded at the Ahl-e-Hadith mosque, in Derby, saying: "King, Queen, House of Commons. If you accept it then you are a part of it. You don't accept it, but you have to dismantle it. So being a Muslim, you have to fix a target. There will be no House of Commons. From that White House to this Black House, we know that we have to dismantle it."

A speaker at the UK Islamic Mission's Sparkbrook Islamic Centre in Birmingham, is recorded praising the Taliban.

He was recorded praising those responsible for killing British Muslim soldier Jabron Hashmi in Afghanistan, saying: "The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders."

One speaker was recorded saying of girls: "By the age of 10 if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her." Another was recorded saying: "Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain."